1.7.2026

One of my most meaningful adventures was spending a week in Salisbury Cathedral in England. My host was the coordinator for the children’s choirs. One of the cathedral leaders told me that this was the most organized the children’s choirs had ever been. I asked him, “Does that mean that in the nearly 800 years the choirs have been singing, that it took an American to straighten you all out?”

800 years! The Cathedral was completed in 1258 and since then, every day except sometimes during war and most often during plagues, for the past 768 years the psalms have been sung in that space. The children that made up the choirs are saturated in the psalms, and I wonder what impact that ultimately makes on them, singing the psalms daily year after year . . . 

But that 768 years is nothing compared to some monasteries that have been around even longer, like the  6th century Benedictines, who sing the entire book of Psalms – all 150 – over the course of a week! 

Yet, the practice of singing the psalms is far older than even that. We’re not sure when the earliest psalms were written, but we know they were part of the temple practice 1000 years before Jesus was born. Since that time they have been the common act of worship that has bound the people of God together, whether in synagogue or temple, “little brown church in the vale” or cathedral.

The New Testament is saturated with the psalms. There are some 116 direct quotes from 39 different psalms. All but two books in the New Testament quote the psalms. Jesus sang a psalm from the cross (Psalm 22). In fact, Jesus quoted the psalms throughout his ministry. The gospel writers interpreted the psalms through the lens of Jesus' death and resurrection. The crowds sang Psalm 118 at Jesus’ triumphant entry. 

Heck, even the devil quotes a psalm (Psalm 91, see Luke 4:9-10)! 

One online author wrote, “The good news of Jesus Christ is almost unintelligible apart from the psalms. So is the history of the Early Church. Jesus, His mother, His disciples—they all demonstrate a profound love and knowledge of the Psalter.”

So we probably should familiarize ourselves with this, the hymn book of God’s people for at least 3 millennia. 

Starting today we get to join our voices in maybe not singing but at least reading the psalms. We’re inviting you to read a psalm a day (or in the case of Psalm 119, a section of a psalm a day). 

And when you first start reading the psalms you might ask, “This is nice and everything, but what’s the point?” For some, the Psalms are challenging. I spoke to someone recently who said that they were “not a psalms person.”  

And I understand it. It’s good to ask ourselves what exactly are we reading when we read a psalm?

Most often we think of the psalms as “songs of praise.” Many of them are praising God for his goodness and faithfulness. The very first psalms sets the [general] rules: good things happen to good people; bad things happen to bad people.  Look at the opening of Psalm 1, our psalm for today:

Happy are those
    who do not follow the advice of the wicked
or take the path that sinners tread
    or sit in the seat of scoffers,
2 but their delight is in the law of the Lord,
    and on his law they meditate day and night.
3 They are like trees
    planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in its season,
    and their leaves do not wither.
In all that they do, they prosper.

This is the NRSV, which I generally like, but in this instance, I don’t. Happy is a weak word (I wrote about this last week). Blessed is the better word, because it means that someone is in the center of God’s will. The blessed person is the one who avoids words from the wicked, sinners and scoffers, but spends qualitative and quantitative time in God’s word. The result? “In all they do, they prosper.” Contrast that with the wicked:

The wicked are not so
    but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment
    nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous,
6 for the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
    but the way of the wicked will perish.

I call these “life is wonderful” psalms. The blessed stand like well-watered, established trees and the wicked are doomed. 

But life isn’t always that clear-cut. Bad things do happen to good people. And as you read the psalms this week, you’ll notice that after Psalm 2, the psalms take a darker turn. Psalm 3 begins, “How many are my foes!” In Psalm 5, the psalmist cries out, “Listen to my words, O Lord; attend to my sighing.”

You’ll see that there are more “life is terrible” psalms than there are “life is good” psalms! I’ll write about that next week. In the meantime, remember that when life doesn’t go the way we expect it, life is still good because the God we love is ultimately in control . . . but more on that next week!

Blessings,
Pastor Terry

PS – Do you see what I did here? If you’ve read this far, you’ve already read Psalm 1, which is our psalm for today, January 7. You might as well download the readings list below or pick up a copy at church and keep reading! Blessings!